Recipes, menus and everything to do with my not so new kitchen

Sweet Onion Confit Revisited

Years ago we were watching Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello and he and a friend had a pizza cook-off. I cannot recall who won, but I do know we came away with the best Onion Confit recipe EVER. I usually make up a couple of batches and freeze; they are perfect for a pizza base, sauce base, dip base, even on a salad with crumbled blue or goats cheese. And because I freeze small quantities, they defrost quite easily. Please click here for Chef Chiarello’s original recipe.

I posted my take on the original recipe here, but I never took a photo of it. Well, you’re in luck because I made some up on the weekend and I was smart enough (wink, wink) to remember to take a gorgeous daylight filled photo of it.

Incredibly sweet and tangy, these onions make an amazing topping to pizza, salads brioche...the possibilities are endless

For additional ideas on how to use these gorgeous sweet onions, please see:

Your daughter must have some sophisticated taste buds, Sawsan. But then again, I am not surprised with the types of foods you introduce to your children. I feel a little sorry for their future partners.

Thank YOU for inspiring me to get off my lazy tushie and get to work on posting it. I froze away the extra in a couple of tupperware containers for future needs. Not that those 4 monstrous onions actually made a LOT! It’s amazing how much water the onions lose during the cooking process. My saucepan barely held the contents to start with.

Your cheddar and onion dip would be perfect with some of the leftover confit. I have some cheddar cheese in the freezer which I was going to use for my 4 cheese mac and cheese but I’m sure the dip would be even better.

How I love caramelised onion! It was a few months since I made it, but I think I might cook it down even more… I can’t remember to be honest… maybe I cook it down too much. It’s still delicious but it doesn’t really have the glossy look that yours does so I might try cooking it a bit less next time. It’s just a pain to make because you have to cut so many darn onions to get even a tiny bowl of the stuff. I was in agony last time from peeling and cutting 5 kilos of onions and what do you get at the end of it… a clump that you can pick up with one hand 😀

Thanks Charles, I love the technique my first post described, to cut a parchment lid and use that instead of the real lid, this allows the moisture to escape and the onion to really caramelize. You could use a food processor with a slicing blade, but I generally just use my mandolin. 5 kilos is a lot of onions.

I love onion confit! Especially with foie gras, but it’s also a fantastic tartlets filler. I make a big batch of onion confit preserves every autumn. Then I only need to go to my pantry and choose a jar 🙂
Thanks for so many suggestions!

It really is so versatile, Lorraine. I have yet to make your bacon jam. I remember when I saw that post, I thought, how decadent but it would certainly go with so many things.
What’s so funny is that I’ve seen it pop up in many places now, like my flavourite gourmet shop; you’re such a trend setter!!

I love onion marmalade and I usually make it every Christmas to serve with hot ham. It does take a while to sweat down those onions! I love how useful it is and find it a perfect accompaniment for a grilled cheese sandwich.

I love this idea Eva — since I’m such a fan of carmelized onions. I made your dip over the holidays and I’ll be making it again. I especially like the idea of freezing a batch in small portions for some of these other great dishes.

Checked out the recipe and will be making it (vidalia onions are on sale this week) especially since it freezes well (you know how I love to cook for my freezer).
Just thinking, this would go well with the pressed tofu in my freezer, must give this more thought.

This sounds great Eva, and I love the idea of making something so versatile that you can freeze it, thaw it and make a lot of different things out of it…way cool! I think I need to have some of this on hand. 🙂

Yes, I remember when you made that recipe, Maria. I think you had said it was too acidic so you would cut the vinegar down, did you? The other thing you could do is add the sugar back that’s in the original recipe. Hope it worked out. Have a great weekend.

Actually, after a month or two of cogitating, I remade the recipe using 4 huge vidalias, reducing the vinegar to a splash of balsamic and the heat to medium, cooked it for almost an hour and it was perfect. I’ll make a real post about the pizza some time today (the nephew and I are having a day out shortly) and include a picture of the caramelized onions I used.

I can’t wait to give this a try, Eva. I bet it would make a great bruschetta with a certain bread that you and I bake. Well, to be honest, it would be good on Wonder Bread. I can’t imagine it not being good on just about anything. 🙂

So true, John, it would be amazing on the cheese bread (coincidentally, I am making 2 loaves tonight but I will allow them to proof for the second proofing in the refrigerator; the first loaf I shall bake tomorrow, and the second one on Sunday). This time my cheese combo is gruyère, pecorino and parmesan; spread with the confit, it may even taste like French onion soup!
Have a great weekend.

Coincidentally, Sharyn, that is exactly what I made this batch of confit for, sadly the stock did not work out this time and I didn’t have any store bought on hand. I changed the first course to a salad of crumbled blue cheese, onion confit on a bed of greens, drizzled with a balsamic reduction. I also used Chgo John’s cheese bread croutons with it; mmmmmmmmmmm! It was indeed quite tasty. Have a great weekend.